A study of plutonium recycle in a gas-cooled, graphite-moderated reactor, (3)

Reactor physics characteristics related to plutonium recycling in a gas-cooled, graphite-moderated reactor were investigated and correlated to those for the case without plutonium recycling, using the fuel cycle analysis code FUELMOVE. It was found that, in the initial stages of irradiation, plutonium recycled fuel shows a thermal spectrum harder with respect to neutron temperature and a higher slowing down density, but that differences become smaller as the burnup progresses. A notable difference between the cases with and without recycling lies in the resonance fission rate which proves to be roughly 20 to 35% higher in the former case. (author)